Mobile wireless networks provide a medium for the exchange of information amongst large populations of mobile devices and various devices connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and the Internet. Mobile networks, such as a wireless wide area network (WWAN), are most commonly implemented as an aggregation of a plurality of individual cells. Each cell provides infrastructure through which signals are transmitted to and from mobile transceiver devices located within a particular coverage area. When joined together, the network of cells provides coverage to a large geographic area.
As mobile transceiver devices move geographically farther away from a transceiver of a cell, they may exit the coverage area provided by that cell and enter the coverage area provided by a neighboring cell. During such movement, it is necessary to perform a cellular handover in which the mobile transceiver device ceases to use the communication infrastructure provided by one cell and begins to use the infrastructure provided by the neighboring cell.
Furthermore, in some areas where the communication infrastructure provided by a first mobile network is of poor quality or of deficient capability with respect to an alternative mobile network, a mobile transceiver device, i.e. a mobile station (MS) or user equipment (UE), can cease to use the communication infrastructure provided by the first mobile network and begin to use the infrastructure provided by the alternative mobile network.